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Disclosure: I am delighted to serve as an ambassador for the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board by highlighting stories surrounding Arkansas’s largest row crop – soybeans! #ARSoyStory #themiraclebean #ARSoySupper

Hiya. Today we are going to chat about poke bowls and why you need them in your life.

Are there times when you feel like your lunch pail is in a rut? That you have lost the creativity when it comes to packing lunch for work or even when you are hanging at home and the clock tells you that it’s time to eat? Reeeelax. It’s perfectly normal to get into a food slump. It happens to all of us.

The difference between a boring lunch, a fast-food lunch and an excitingly delicious lunch comes down to planning. And by planning… I don’t mean difficult.

Boring lunches are sometimes necessary because, well let’s face it, they keep us going. It’s a part of life. Fast-food lunches aren’t necessary because we know that they aren’t necessary. Unless you pop in somewhere with healthy options, most of the time they aren’t.

So, let’s talk about exciting delicious lunches in the form of poke bowls, shall we? Pronounced PHO-keh, poke bowls originate from the Hawaiian Islands and can easily be adapted to your taste. While there are rules, feel free to deviate from them. Poke bowls include a starch, veggies, something pickled, a spicy dash of sauce and chopped pieces of raw and marinated fish.

Wait. Wait. Raw fish?

That’s right! But this is where the “feel free to deviate from the rules” come in. If you’re into raw fish, by all means go for it! You can’t go wrong with sushi-grade Yellowfin tuna. But if you are in the “I prefer my fish cooked camp,” then hang with me. I created a simple poke recipe that involves lightly searing marinated Yellowfin tuna. And, I gotta’ tell ya, it’s deeeeeeeelicious!

Lightly seared tuna and edamame poke bowl

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

6oz Fresh, sushi-grade raw Yellowfin Tuna, cubed
1 small sweet onion, diced
1 scallion, diced
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1/8^thteaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups cooked white rice or cauliflower rice
1 cup fermented slaw or pickled vegetables
6oz cooked shelled edamame (young soybeans)
1 avocado, sliced
Sriracha sauce or similar thick spicy sauce

Instructions

In a medium sized bowl, combine tuna, onions, scallions, olive oil salt and crushed red pepper and mix thoroughly. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Over medium high heat, sauté tuna mixture for five minutes. You should have a slight pink to the tuna at this point. If you are still squeamish about raw tuna, keep cooking a few more minutes until cooked. But seriously, try it quickly seared because it is delicious!
In 2-4 individually sized bowl, evenly arrange the ingredient. Be careful to separate same-color ingredients in order to enhance the appearance.
Drizzle with spicy sauce such as Sriracha.
Serve and enjoy!

Go bright with your vegetables. I like to use shelled edamame in my poke bowls because not only are they delicious, edamame packs a powerful protein punch.

All of these ingredients can be quickly prepared ahead of time and arranged artfully in a bowl when you’re ready to take a midday break and enjoy a not so boring or fast-food lunch.

Welcome to your new excitingly delicious lunch.

Go you!

Happy poke-ing!

Eat well, my friends. Eat well.

Lyndi